Accidental
by repmetsyrrah
Summary: It was an accident, but it doesn't mean Jimmy's just going to forgive Clark.


**AN: **Written for Barb1808 who requested a fic in which a door is important.

Enjoy!

**Accidental**

* * *

The night had gone well, _really_ well.

Clark had only been called away from dinner twice and then only for several minutes. The food had been wonderful, and the company even better, Clark thought as he smiled at the gorgeous woman beside him.

"And what might you be smiling about?" Lois asked, with a raised eyebrow as they turned the corner onto their street.

"I'm not allowed to be happy that I just had a wonderful date with a wonderful woman who's now coming home with me?" Clark asked, pulling her closer for a kiss.

Lois grinned as they pulled apart. "Think you're getting lucky tonight, Mr. Kent?"

"I already am," Clark said sincerely.

Lois laughed. "Corny, much?" she asked, leaning against him in a way that was not unpleasant at all.

"You love it," Clark teased, as they reached their driveway.

The restaurant was only a ten minute walk from their house and even as late as they had stayed the summer night was warm and pleasant so they hadn't bothered calling a cab, instead taking their time on the way home.

Lois answered by pulling him around and into a kiss.

As nice as it was they couldn't delay forever, they had a son to tend to and a babysitter to relieve. Eventually they pulled apart and Clark scanned the house quickly as they walked up the path, seeing what he expected, Jason tucked in bed and Jimmy sitting on the couch in the living room.

"We're home," Lois called as they opened they door.

Clark was still smiling as he followed Lois into the living room but frowned as soon as he saw Jimmy. He had seen him sitting on the couch but hadn't looked beyond that. Now he saw his friend wasn't watching TV like he'd first assumed but sitting rigidly with his arms crossed, staring blankly at the dark screen.

"How was Jason?" Lois asked, trying to sound casual but Clark heard the note of confusion in her voice.

"He was great," Jimmy told them tightly, not looking at either of them, "we watched TV, played some games, had dinner… Oh, yeah," he added, "then he ripped the pantry door of its hinges. Accidentally."

Lois froze, Jimmy glared.

Clark's mind went into overdrive, explanations and excuses forming automatically, a million ideas about what Office-Clark could do to throw off suspicion.

But Jimmy was looking straight through him now and he knew anything he said to attempt to cover himself would simply be an insult to his friend.

"Jimmy-"

"I'm not stupid," Jimmy cut over Clark, giving his friend a hard glare. "I figured it out pretty quickly."

"Jimmy…" Clark tired again, not really sure what to say after that but Jimmy had already picked up his laptop and was leaving as fast as he could.

Ignoring Clark, Jimmy turned to Lois before he closed the door. "Jason was really upset," he told her quietly, his voice softening but still chilly, "I tried to tell him it wasn't his fault but you might want to talk to him again."

"Thank you," Lois said quietly.

"I'll see you at work, _Clark_."

Clark almost felt like Jimmy had dipped the last word in kryptonite, its poisonous tone making him feel like his best friend had reached out and hit him.

He was so stunned by the pure hatred in the photographer's voice that he didn't even try to say anything until the younger man was long gone.

"I'll go check on Jason," Lois said after a moment, disappearing upstairs, leaving Clark standing in the living room alone.

His legs gave way and he sat down heavily on the sofa. This wasn't how he thought this night would end. And this was really not how he had wanted Jimmy to find out.

He'd been thinking of telling his best friend. Before Lois knew he hadn't really understood how amazing it could be to have someone trusted who knew about his other job. Who knew where he really came from and didn't care. Someone he could talk to about _everything_. This wasn't the way he would have chosen to tell him though.

Speaking of which- he headed over to the pantry and sighed. The door was leaning against the wall, the handle was bent and the hinges were completely torn.

It would be easy enough to reattach, easier to do it himself than try and explain what happened too.

What wasn't going to be easy would be talking to Jason about it. The boy was still scared of what he could do. He was getting better with control but accidents like this still happened and Jason often took a lot of consoling before he'd calm down after them. Clark had been out to Smallville more times than he could count to talk to his mother about what she and Jonathan had done when he'd been the one who was young and terrified of his own abilities.

Even with his anger when Clark had arrived, Clark knew Jimmy would have done a good job at calming him down. After he'd gotten over the shock of course. But Jimmy was a reasonable person and a good man, Clark doubted he'd have been angry at Jason once he'd figured it all out.

"You're still here?" Lois voice came from behind him, a surprised note in her question. "Thought you would have gone after him."

"He didn't seem like he wanted to talk to me." Clark frowned, standing up from examining the bottom of the door. "How was Jason?"

"Jimmy did well, he was a bit upset but nothing to how I can imagine he would have been right after doing that." She nodded towards the door. "He's asleep now."

Clark nodded. "I'll talk to him in the morning then."

Lois started to say something but broke off when Clark's head twitched to the left and his eyes unfocused.

"Sounds big," Clark said apologetically, turning to focus back on Lois.

Lois kissed him. "It's okay, go. We'll talk tomorrow."

* * *

The _Daily Planet, _like all workplaces, had an active rumor mill. The second Jimmy didn't return Clark's greeting the next morning, Jill from Lifestyle had texted Polly from Entertainment and within what seemed to be half a second the entire bullpen knew that the two friends were fighting.

Clark's concentration was tested to the limit. He was monitoring the news for disaster reports, keeping tabs on Jason _and_ trying to filter out the increasingly absurd reasons his coworkers were coming up with for the sudden coldness Jimmy was displaying towards him.

He still caught snippets though, ranging from close to so far from the truth that Clark really hoped there was another rumor they were discussing that day.

"_- he stole a story from him?"_

"_- wasn't there a promotion? Maybe Clark got it over Jimmy? Or-"_

_"__- big deal? They had a fight, I've got deadlines-"_

"_- Jimmy's a photographer, Clark's a city reporter, what promotion would have them competing?"_

"_- going to pop the question to Lois, maybe Jimmy's a bit jealous if you catch my dirft?"_

"I need to leave," Clark said, after an hour of gossip which was, almost disappointingly, devoid of things that required Superman's attention. He could help that cat out of the drain in Chicago... "If I have to put up with one more second of gossip…"

Lois hadn't even looked up from her desk as Clark had burst into her new office. But at his words she sighed and turned to look at him.

"Clark, end this now," she said firmly, surprising him, "I don't care how, you and Jimmy have too good a friendship to lose."

"What?" Clark asked, not expecting that.

"The longer you leave it that harder it'll be," she told him, in a tone that suggested she had thought about it a lot.

"Now? He won't even talk to me." Clark had tried four times to get Jimmy to do more than give him a hard glare with no luck.

"_Clark_," Lois snapped, giving him an annoyed look. "Don't do this."

"What?" Clark asked, taken aback by her response.

"Your... avoiding thing," Lois told him.

"I…" Clark trailed off, trying to tell himself he had no idea what she meant.

"Look, remember how pissed I was when I found out?" Lois asked, not waiting for an answer before she continued because how could Clark not remember that? "And then you know what happened? You avoided me for a month."

"I didn't think you wanted to talk to me."

"I didn't," Lois agreed, "at first, but after a while I realized I needed to talk to you before I could even start to forgive you and_ you_ were no where to be found. Talk to Jimmy now, explain it to him so he doesn't have to try and figure it out himself. You owe him that much."

"I don't think he wants to talk to me." Clark winced at the way Lois looked at him. Her eyebrow raised and the 'did you not listen to _anything_ I just said?'was written all over her face.

"You can't just keep running away from hard conversations, Clark. It's easier in the short term but it'll hurt you in the end."

* * *

It took almost the rest of the day but Clark _finally_ cornered Jimmy on the stairs as he was coming up from the IT office one floor down.

"We need to talk."

"I don't want to talk to you." Jimmy stepped to the side to move past him but Clark blocked his way.

"I know you don't but _please_, Jimmy, you haven't even given me a chance to explain. I know I have no right to ask it of you but at least hear me out. Then if you still want to ignore me, you can."

Jimmy stared at him for a long time, assessing and cold, a far cry from the nervous copy boy he'd been years ago when they'd first meet. Finally he gave a sharp nod.

"Er, how about we use Lois' office then, she's out chasing down some leads…" Clark suggested, once Jimmy didn't say anything else.

The bullpen was its usual hive of activity as the pair made their way to the small office Lois had been granted with her recent promotion and for a moment Clark thought no one had noticed but as soon as he'd closed the door behind his friend he heard the whispers erupt as the gossip-mongers wasted no time spreading the news.

"I know _why_ you did it, I'm not stupid," Jimmy said before he could talk, his voice emotionless, "I'm not angry at you for protecting your family, Superman has a lot of enemies. I just don't know why you thought you couldn't trust _me_."

"It's not that, Jimmy," Clark told him, "I do trust you. You're my best friend."

"Yeah, it shows," Jimmy muttered bitterly, "we're such good friends you couldn't even tell me who you really were. We're such good friends that you just laughed behind my back every time I talked about how great Superman was. Bet you found _that_ hilarious," he spat.

"I never laughed at you," Clark said, his voice sincere. He hoped Jimmy knew that too, for some reason that accusation upset Clark the most. "Jimmy, I _never_ laughed at you behind your back."

"I get why you didn't tell me when we first meet," Jimmy told him, turning his back on his friend and running his fingers through his hair. "I'm not an idiot, despite how I felt last night. But, later after we became friends, after you got back, I trust you with everything." He turned back, his face less angry now but so full of hurt that Clark really did feel like the worst friend in the world.

"No one likes Clark," Clark told him, "at least, not many people. But the truth is, I'm not as clumsy as I make out, but almost everything else? That's _me_. Superman is so much more of an act than the man I am at the _Planet._ I mean, granted Superman is still someone I am but I just try harder and have so much more control in the suit."

He rushed on, not wanting to give Jimmy the chance to storm off again before he was done.

"I am truly sorry, Jimmy. I know should have told you sooner but I was selfish. I wanted someone who liked me for who _I _was, not for what Superman could do. I enjoyed having you as a friend so much I didn't want that to change. Believe it or not I was going to tell you soon. I'd been thinking about how to do it but funnily enough I was delaying because I didn't want our friendship to change, I didn't want you to hate me or worse, only see me as Superman."

"That still sounds like you didn't trust me," Jimmy said after a moment's silence.

"It's not that," Clark said, almost automatically before sighing. "Okay, maybe it is but… the way people treat me as Superman- at best it's like I'm a celebrity, at worst, some sort of... savior. But always like I'm different, like I'm removed from them. Very few people treat me like they would a friend and even then it's only people who've known me for years."

"You _really_ thought I'd treat you differently because you're Superman?"

"Yes," Clark admitted, unable to meet Jimmy's gaze. "And, you have every right to be angry. I should have trusted you more. I should have known you wouldn't."

Jimmy was silent and Clark hadn't realized how much Jimmy's friendship truly meant until he realized how nervous he was at that moment, waiting for him to respond.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Jimmy spoke. "I'm more angry at myself for not noticing," he muttered quietly. "I'm a photographer for pete's sake, I make my living by looking at things and I didn't see this?"

"I've spent most of my life finding way to make sure no one notices," Clark told him, "but I think the very best defense I have is that no one actually stops to consider Superman has another identity at all."

"Huh." Jimmy nodded. "That does make sense." There was another long pause before Jimmy started speaking, his voice stronger this time. "CK, you're not just my best friend, hell, you're pretty much my _only_ friend. I don't know if you've noticed but no one much likes me either and I don't have the excuse of a secret identity to uphold. I thought you understood that because we were so similar and now I find out it was all an act?"

"_No_," Clark said, so forcefully that Jimmy looked rather taken aback. "Sorry, it's just, no, Clark is not an act, _Clark_ is who I am, Superman is just… something I do."

"Okay." Jimmy looked thoughtful and didn't say anything else.

"So… Are we okay then?" Clark asked hesitantly, hardly daring to hope it had gone so well.

"I don't know." Clark knew it had been too good to be true but at least the answer hadn't been no. "I think… I just need time to get used to this," Jimmy told him after a moment. "I understand better why you didn't tell me but it still hurts and I still feel stupid-"

"Jimmy-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

They sat in silence for another moment before Jimmy spoke again. "I think maybe, I mean, I need time, to get used to this." He laughed. "It's not every day you find out your best friend is secretly a super powered crime-fighting alien."

"Alright… okay." Clark drummed his fingers awkwardly on Lois' desk for a moment. "Thank you," he said as he went to leave, the conversation seemingly over. "For giving me a chance to have my say." Jimmy nodded and Clark turned to the door.

"Clark?" Jimmy called just before he opened the door. "If you did want to get lunch tomorrow or something, so we could talk more. That'd be cool."

"Yeah," Clark said, unable to help a smile spreading across his face, "I'd like that too."

* * *

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